Friday, March 29, AD 2024 5:27am

Quotes Suitable For Framing: Saint John Fisher

 

 

I am jumping the gun a bit as the feast day the great bishop of Rochester shares with Saint Thomas More is June 22, but any day is a good day to recall the eloquence, faith and learning of the martyr Saint John Fisher.  In his essay on Psalm 101 Saint John has a passage which I have always regarded as a summary on the vanity of a search for worldly power for its own sake:

Where are now the kings and princes that once reigned over all the world, whose
glory and triumph were lifted up above the earth? Where are now the innumerable
company and power of Xerxes and Caesar? Where are the great victories of
Alexander and Pompey? Where are now the great riches of Croesus and Crassus? But
what shall we say of those who once were kings and governors of this realm?
Where are they now whom we have known and seen in our days in such great wealth
and glory that it was thought by many they would never have died, never have
been forgotten? They had all their pleasures at the full, both of delicious and
good fare, of hawking, hunting, also of excellent horses and stallions,
greyhounds and hounds for their entertainment, their palaces well and richly
furnished, strongholds and towns without number. They had a great plenty of gold
and silver, many servants, fine apparel for themselves and their lodgings. They
had the power of the law to proscribe, to punish, to exalt and set forward their
friends and loved ones, to put down and make low their enemies, and also to
punish by temporal death rebels and traitors. Every man held with them, all were
at their command. Every man was obedient to them, feared them, also honored and
praised them, everywhere now? Are they not gone and wasted like smoke? Of them
it is written in another place, mox ut honorificati fuerint et exaltati, dificientes quemadmodum fumus
deficient (when they were in their utmost prosperity and fame, they soon
failed and came to nothing, even as smoke does) (Ps. 36:2). St. James compares
the vanity of this life to a vapor, and he says it shall perish and wither away

as a flower in the hay season. (James 4:15).

Only faith and love truly last in this vale of tears and beyond this vale of tears.

 

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Pinky
Pinky
Tuesday, June 18, AD 2013 9:36am

Excellent quote. I always forget about St. John Fisher in favor of his fellow martyr More. So many saints I should know more about.

Pat
Pat
Tuesday, June 18, AD 2013 9:46am

The past gives meaning to the present.

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Tuesday, June 18, AD 2013 10:35am

[…] Archbold, Crt Min Rep Overcoming Suffering with Love – Steve Pokorny, Truth and Charity Forum Quotes Suitable For Framing: St. John Fisher – Donald R. McClarey JD, TAC Interview with Robert George: What Is Marriage? – Brandon […]

Erin Pascal
Wednesday, June 19, AD 2013 1:24am

Beautiful message! This is a very good quote. It’s always a good feeling learning new things. I don’t know much about St. John Fisher but he was a man who was strong in faith and was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater glory of the Lord. Thank you for sharing this!

John Nolan
John Nolan
Wednesday, June 19, AD 2013 8:29pm

Of the two, I rate Fisher higher. Had the king not vindictively pursued More and allowed him to retire to private life he would not have gone to the block. Fisher, however, in his outspoken support for Queen Catherine, had been a thorn in Henry’s side for a long time. He was the only English bishop not to follow the king into schism. To be fair, the others thought the separation from Rome would only be a temporary one.

The only reason why Fisher was not dragged on a hurdle to Tyburn there to be hanged, drawn and quartered was that he was so frail after his incarceration that it was feared he would die before he got there. Catholic Europe was more scandalized by Fisher’s execution than it was about More’s; the judicial murder of a Prince of the Church was unprecedented.

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